Scholarly Seminars

This seminar provides a forum for works-in-progress that explore topics in Latino/a and Borderlands studies.  

The seminar’s coordinators are María Eugenia López-García (University of Illinois at Chicago), Ivón Padilla-Rodríguez (University of Illinois at Chicago), and Emiliano Aguilar (University of Notre Dame). 

The seminar’s co-sponsors are Indiana University’s Latino Studies Program, Northwestern University’s Program in Latina and Latino Studies, The Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame, the Center for Latino Research at DePaul University, the Katz Center for Mexican Studies at the University of Chicago, and the University of Illinois at Chicago Latin American and Latino Studies Program.

The British Studies Seminar brings together scholars to discuss work that addresses the history of Britain and the British Empire from the early modern period to present day. The seminar is co-sponsored by the Graduate Cluster in British Studies at Northwestern, Northwestern History, and the Nicholson Center for British Studies at the University of Chicago.

The Eighteenth-Century Seminar is designed to foster research and inquiry across the scholarly disciplines in eighteenth-century studies. It aims to provide a methodologically diverse forum for work that engages ongoing discussions and debates along this historical and critical terrain. Each year the seminar sponsors one public lecture followed by questions and discussion, and two works-in-progress sessions featuring pre-circulated papers. 

The seminar is organized by Timothy Campbell (University of Chicago), Lisa A. Freeman (University of Illinois at Chicago), Jason Farr (Marquette University), and Alicia Caticha (Northwestern University).

The Center for Renaissance Studies European Art Seminar considers work in art history that explores painting, sculpture, graphic art, architecture, caricature, manuscript illumination, book arts, and material culture.  

The coordinators for the Seminar in European Art are Suzanne Karr Schmidt (Newberry Library), Lia Markey (Newberry Library), and Walter Melion (Emory University). 

The Newberry Scholar-in-Residence for the European Art Seminar is Sheryl E. Reiss. 

The European Art Seminar is sponsored by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.

This seminar provides a forum for scholarship-in-progress in the area of German studies. The seminar is particularly interested in papers that cross disciplinary boundaries and that reconceptualize the materials and conventions of German Studies as a field, including beyond the frames of the German language and nation state. 

The seminar’s coordinators are Alice Goff (University of Chicago), Imke Meyer (University of Illinois Chicago), Sophie Salvo (University of Chicago), Anna Souchuk (DePaul University), and Lauren Stokes (Northwestern University). 

The seminar is generously sponsored by Germanic Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Germanic Studies at the University of Chicago, the Department of Modern Languages at DePaul University, and the Department of History at Northwestern University.

This seminar is a forum for works-in-progress in the history of capitalism, broadly defined. We seek proposals from scholars at all levels. These proposals may consider a variety of subjects, including the history of race and racism, gender and feminist studies, intellectual history, political history, legal history, business history, the history of finance, labor history, cultural history, urban history, and agricultural history.  

The seminar’s sponsors are the history departments of Loyola University Chicago, Illinois State University, and the Karla Scherer Center at the University of Chicago. Elizabeth Tandy Shermer (Loyola University Chicago) and Andrew Hartman (Illinois State University) are the co-coordinators of the 2024-2025 seminar.

This seminar provides a forum for works in progress that explore the history of working class people, communities, and culture; class and state policy; unions and popular political movements; and other related topics.  

The seminar’s co-sponsors are the history departments of DePaul University, Northwestern University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, The Karla Scherer Center for the Study of American Culture at the University of Chicago, Loyola University Chicago, and the Labor and Working-Class History Association. 

Co-coordinators are Peter Cole (Western Illinois University), Colleen Doody (DePaul University), Liesl Orenic (Dominican University), and Elizabeth Tandy Shermer (Loyola University Chicago).

The Map History Seminar aims to support interdisciplinary research in the history of maps and mapping in any period or specialty. With scholars in many different fields, we hope to foster lively discussions and explore new and exciting scholarship that engages with the history of maps and mapping. The seminar uses a workshop model where attendees will read a pre-circulated paper from the presenter and attend ready to discuss. Some meetings will be virtual and some in person.

The coordinators for the Map History Seminar for 2024-2025 are Delia Cosentino (DePaul University), David Weimer (Newberry Library), and Karen-edis Barzman (DePaul University).

This Center for Renaissance Studies Seminar provides a forum for new approaches to classical, medieval, and early modern studies, allowing scholars from a range of disciplines to share work-in-progress with the broader community at the Center for Renaissance Studies.

Organized by Timothy Crowley (Northern Illinois University), Caterina Mongiat-Farina (DePaul University), Lydia Barnett (Northwestern University), and Christopher Fletcher (Newberry Library).

If you have any questions about the submission process or the seminar in general, please email Christopher Fletcher.

The Religion and Culture in the Americas Seminar explores topics in religion and culture including social history, biography, cultural studies, visual and material culture, urban studies, and the history of ideas. We are interested in how religious belief has affected society, rather than creedal or theological focused studies. 

The Seminar’s organizers for 2024-2025 are Karen Johnson (Wheaton College), Malachy McCarthy (Archival Resources for Catholic Collections), Christopher Allison (Dominican University), Christopher Cantwell (Loyola University Chicago), Kevin Schultz (University of Illinois Chicago), Darren Dochuk (University of Notre Dame), and James Krippner (Haverford College).

The Religion and Culture in the Americas Seminar is co-sponsored by the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame, the McGreal Center at Dominican University, the History Department at Loyola University, the University of Chicago Divinity School, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Wheaton College.